Los Angeles, March 2006 — A nine-day/eight-night Continental Journeys tour of undiscovered Romania, priced at $799 per person, double occupancy, focuses on legendary Dracula sites in Transylvania; famous painted monasteries in Bucovina; the well-preserved medieval old towns of Sibiu, Sighisoara and Brasov; and Bucharest, the cosmopolitan capital. Ten departures are scheduled Fridays from May 19 to September 15.
The tour price covers centrally located tourist-class hotels with private bath, breakfast daily, six lunches, seven dinners, city tours and sightseeing, English-speaking tour escort, airport transfers, hotel taxes and service charges. Single supplement is $299; transatlantic airfare is available from Continental Journeys.
Bucharest is a city of Belle Époque architecture and wide tree-lined boulevards. Tour members take a walking tour of the Old Quarter and visit the open-air Village Museum of Folk Art, where more than 300 traditional houses, churches and crafts workshops show the country's diverse cultural heritage and architectural styles.
The itinerary, rich in World Heritage Sites, includes the Main Square and Liar's Bridge in Sibiu, founded by German Saxons; the citadel and Clock Tower in Sighisoara, birthplace of Vlad the Impaler, the 15th-century prince who inspired Bram Stoker's classic vampire novel on Dracula; charming Transylvanian villages with wooden churches; vividly colored 15th and 16th-century frescoes of Biblical scenes on the exterior walls of Moldovita, Sucevita and Voronet monasteries; limestone Bicaz Gorges and Red Lake in the Carpathian Mountains; the Gothic Black Church and its Turkish carpets collection in Brasov; Bran Castle, built in 1377 and known as Dracula's Castle, and opulent Peles Castle, formerly the summer residence of Romanian kings.
Continental Journeys offers six Romanian tours of three to 14 days and three tours combining the country with Bulgaria or Central Europe. The company, which specializes in independent, escorted and customized vacations to Eastern and Central Europe, Scandinavia, the Baltics and Russia, is at tel. (800) 601-4343 or (818) 995-8643; fax (818) 995-8673; e-mail info@continentaljourneys.com; and web site www.continentaljourneys.com.
For more on Romania at ITKT
